Being the storytellers that we are, us marketers only have two adequate approaches when telling our story.

First, we can choose to tell an old story in a new way.  Take a product or service within an existing category and let them know in a fresh new way why this will improve their lives over all the other similar competitors.  How can Tide connect to their world aside from just telling them it will leave their clothes cleaner?

The second approach is to take a brand new story, and tell it in an old way.  The radical new product brings familiarity with it when you link it to emotions and frustrations they’ve long dealt with.  How does our game-changing gadget fit into their already compartmentalized life?

The problem occurs when we approach our storytelling in the third way, telling a brand new story in a brand new way.  As humans we are all resistant to too much change at once. Our brain is trained to look back at history and trends.  Give us too much New and we will give you the good ol’ fashioned cold shoulder.